Fast-food giant KFC is looking to add another feather to its cap with proposals for a new drive-thru restaurant in Sunderland.

The chicken chain wants to open a 278sq m restaurant with 44 car parking spaces on the site of the former Dewhirst garment factory at Pennywell Industrial Estate.

The planning application, submitted by KFC and North East Property Partnership (NEPP), which owns the Pennywell Industrial Estate, claimed the restaurant would generate around 40 jobs in the area.

It added that the industrial estate would benefit from the “demolition of obsolete buildings”, which were a target for vandals and arsonists, as well as improvements to the estate road.

The application is currently under consideration by Sunderland City Council.

In a report on the proposed development, principal planning officer Gary Clasper raised concerns over the fact that cars from visitors to the drive-thru might block the access road. However, he added: “If it can be adequately demonstrated that such events will not occur... there are no grounds for objecting to this proposal.”